Anthropologist Karin van Nieuwkerk’s latest book-length study addresses thephenomenon, widely discussed in Egyptian media since the 1990s, of celebratedsingers, actors, and dancers who withdraw from their professions to liveaccording to what they believe are Islamically sound principles. The author of“A Trade Like Any Other”: Female Singers and Dancers in Egypt (Austin:University of Texas Press, 1995),...Read More

This edited volume consists of ten case studies framed by an introductionwritten by the two editors and a postscript written by Larry Diamond, a leadingscholar of democracy studies today. The Introduction, which places thevolume within the tradition of political sociology and political science, relatesexplicitly to the study of contentious politics and social movements.In doing so,...Read More

This book is an interesting exposition of the reform discourse and reformironies in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia … a country ambivalent in itssense of security and insecurity, content in its presumed “orthodoxy,” uncertainabout where it fits in this world and about its future, and unsure as to whatextent it can continue to linger...Read More

In the past, many Muslims maintained strong reservations aboutusing English as a means of communication, interaction, and intellectualpractices mainly due to its association with British colonialism.In the postcolonial world Muslims and other religiouscommunities, as well as various ethnic and indigenous groups,have moved away from the ideological and political assumptionsof a binary relationship between English and...Read More